Kony 2012

If you are a frequenter of mass media websites like YouTube then you might know who Joesph Kony is. Recently the non-profit organization Invisible Children posted a video on YouTube that has brought them both positive and negative feedback. Joesph Kony is the leader of a terrorist group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA henceforth) and has been abducting children in northern Uganda, southern Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and enslaving the girls as sex slaves and the boys as child soldiers. The name of Kony's terrorist organization does not reflect the actual beliefs of the group because Kony has openly stated that he has no purpose other than to be violent. When I say violent I mean crimes against humanity that have placed him at the top of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) number one most wanted list. Kony does not just abduct the children and put guns in their hands, he forces them to kill their parents and physically maim people by cutting off their lips, nose, and other gruesome acts of violence. Until recently the United States government has not been involved because what has been taking place for almost twenty-five years in Uganda, Sudan, and Congo does not effect US finances or security then it is not a concern of our nation. Invisible Children created enough political pressure and backing to prompt President Obama to send in 100 US troops to train the Ugandan people in military tactics in order to find and arrest Kony so that he could be tried in international court and found guilty of his crimes against humanity and be placed in prison. Sadly in the almost twenty-five years this is all that has been done to help the people of Uganda and these other African nations affected by Kony's reign of terror. Until the Invisible Children posted their YouTube video very few people had any knowledge of what Kony has been doing for almost twenty-five years, much like many people did not know about seven years of attempted genocide in the Sudan during the war in Darfur. Gatekeeping has kept out news that people would expect to not be allowed to take place in the world regardless of national finance or security as an American I find it appalling that crimes against humanity have been known about by our government and have been allowed to take place and displays how unimportant minorities, especially female minorities since the girls were sex slaves (which disgusts me) even within a so-called, 'global society.' Most of the negative coverage comes from backlash created against the Invisible Children organization due to the fact that their founder makes $90,000 annually when the average is $60,000, but have no problem with the founder of the Susan G. Komen foundation, Nancy G. Brinker, making $500,000 annually, until the Blogosphere pointed it out in defense of Jason Russell and has recently had people calling for Brinker's resignation. People are also outraged that 30% of every dollar goes to funding aid to the Ugandan, Sudanese, and the Congolese (again the Komen foundation 29% of every dollar goes to breast cancer research). Most people are ignorant to the what it takes to run a non-profit organization and think because the Red Cross (91% of every dollar) and Salvation Army (82%). Yes, every non-profit organization should strive to be like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, but in order to create amazing videos like "Kony 2012," the Invisible Children YouTube video, you have to put money towards paying people and buying equipment to create such videos. Money is not even what the Invisible Children is after otherwise they would not come on public and cable news stations stating, "we do not need anymore money, we need people to keep talking, to call or write your senators, and congressmen/women and ask them where they stand on what they're doing to help capture, arrest, try, and imprison Joesph Kony? The purpose of the video is to make Kony the most infamous man of 2012 to maintain pressure on world leaders to bring him to justice.